Joseph André

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Joseph André (March 14, 1908 - June 1, 1973) was a Catholic priest of the diocese of Namur, Belgium.

After two years (1926-28) with the Jesuits where he could not stay because of frail health, he joined the seminary of Namur.^{[citation needed]} Ordained priest in 1936, he was for a few years teacher in a high school (Floreffe) before being appointed curate at the parish of St Jean-Baptiste (Namur). This was in 1941 and Belgium was under German occupation. Under his quiet and discreet leadership ^{[opinion needs balancing]} the parish youth center (located exactly next to the Gestapo 'Kommandantur' of Namur) became the hub of a vast clandestine organization whose aim was to save Jewish children from deportation and certain death. It was a transit house where children (sometime more than 20 together) stayed for as few days as possible before being entrusted to religious institutions or rural families where they could stay in hiding. To feed them Fr André and his collaborators went about the country, from farm to farm, begging for food, hams, bread, cheese, and on the look out for more shelters for his protégés. With a personal love for Jews and a profound respect for religious freedom Fr André never tried to convert or baptize the children. Though he was suspected and several times interrogated his center and organisation were never uncovered and remained active till the end of the war.

After the war he carried social and caritative activities in connection with the Service social des Juifs of Belgium. Living by choice very poorly, he had an evangelical love for the marginalized and the lost. ^{[opinion needs balancing]} Chaplain of the Namur jail from 1957 till his death, he had opened a welcome center for ex-convicts, illegal migrants and political refugees: the 'Chateau de Bomel' (Namur). Always interested in the destiny of the Jewish people and the mystery of Israel ^{[opinion needs balancing]} he followed closely the birth of the new state in 1948. In 1967 he received the highest honour of the nation: he was declared "Righteous Among the Nations" and a tree in his name was planted in Yad Vashem. The following year the frail man, always in black cassock, was invited to New York by the United Jewish Appeal and greeted by more than a thousand Jews.

Fr André was found dead in his office of the Namur jail on the 1 June 1973. On the death-notice letter the cross and the star of David were to be found side by side...^{[citation needed]}